Mon Feb 25, 2013 at 21:34:28 PM EST

( - promoted by lowkell)

George Allen loved sports metaphors. Now that he's history, I'm taking them back.

Imagine, if you will, that you're Frank Beamer, legendary coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies and Hillsville, VA native. Say that you just had a disappointing season (like, say, last season). You're Frank Beamer. You're not going to let it happen again. To make matters worse, you know you'll have an empty roster due to graduations, transfers, underclassmen declaring for the NFL draft, etc. Through some horrible stroke of misfortune, you now see that you're going to only have 20 players (unbelievable, but stay with me here)! You can't even take the field with a full offense or defense (never mind any players that may want to play both ways, it's not feasible today). You MUST go out and recruit in advance of this potentially disastrous situation.

So what would you call a college football program that doesn't even bother to recruit enough players to not only fill the roster, but even start the game?

You would call them a team not playing to win. In other words, losers.

So what do you call a political party that needs 51 seats (in the Virginia House of Delegates) to pass anything in its agenda that only runs 43 candidates?

As of today, we have 43 Democratic House of Delegates candidates either currently in office and not saying they will retire or challenging current Republicans. I applaud the 12 brave Democrats who have stepped up to challenge sitting Republicans, some of whom are challenging entrenched incumbents with multiple terms of experience in very red districts. At least 5 are running in districts President Obama won in 2012.

Now we can talk about how hard it is to run or how it's impossible to turn out younger, minority, and recent immigrant voters in off-year elections, or how the House of Delegates is a part-time job only so few people can afford to undertake, but we have leaders who are supposed to know all of this and still try to work to solve it. It's been done. The Republicans have done it. Why not us?

I'm especially disappointed that there are no challengers in the 12th, 13th, 32nd, and 67th districts. Each one was an Obama district in 2012. Each one either had a Democrat sitting in it recently (under different, but not that different lines) or has a Bob Marshall sitting in it currently (what more to say about him?).

The 12th is especially egregious. Obama won it. A Democrat held it for years. It's centered on a college town. It was even drawn to make sure it took in all the Democratic preceints in the area so that no Republican around it would have to worry! And there it is, with a freshman Republican who's only 26, who supported Bob Marshall's bill to have Virginia mint its own currency...running unopposed. I've seen some of the local Democratic leaders chatting up this delegate's weakness and their desire to take back the district. So...where's the challenger? Where's DPVA on all of this? Where's the House caucus?

I hope this gets a conversation started. Upset? You should be. You should be upset that, for so long, the House has been able to set the legislative agenda, giving us the bills that have made us a laughingstock. The Medicaid panel nominations from this weekend are typical of what will continue to happen as long as we aren't competitive in the House.

You play to win the game, and if we won't compete for control of the legislative agenda, why bother?

The filing deadline is March 28th.

UPDATE: I was reminded by lowkell that Terry McAuliffe promised in 2009 that NO CANDIDATE considering running for the House of Delegates should be worried about money in balking at running. Is the same true for 2013? If he wants to be an effective governor and actually hope at eventually getting any preferred policy through, both in his term and in the future, he better be serious about that.

At the McAuliffe office opening, I met a man named Patrick Casula who said he was running against Bob Marshall in the 13th. He has a Facebook page, but no website that I could find. He is otherwise unfamiliar to me, but probably deserves encouragement.

In general, of course, Paba, you are absolutely right and this needs to be a top priority for Charniele and the new DPVA team. It also might be worth it to Terry to supply some seed money to prospective candidates. A competitive race in a HoD district will boost turnout and an active Democratic candidate could strengthen field operations. Could be a good investment - maybe on a matching funds basis to reward serious fundraising.

Is there any easy source for who has filed except VPAP? I tried to find a list on the SBE website with no real luck.

According to this post, a gent named Jerry Foltz is challenging Tim Hugo. Also, in the 67th District, "Democratic Candidate(s) will be announced. The nominee will challenge incumbent Republican Jim LeMunyon."

The last Democrat in the House west of Roanoke. All of the Delegates from SW tend to stick together in their advocacy for the region that has seen a shrinking voice in an important time in its history. Whenever there are cuts to education and health programs, SW feels it the most acutely. He was the dean of that delegation, and hopefully he'll have a replacement just as concerned with the ongoing development of the region.

The good thing is that there are good Dems in the Abingdon area that are currently serving in elected office who could possibly move into his position.

You never know what will happen until the ballots are counted. The opponent could develop a case of wide stance and say it was the bed bugs. An opponent might turn out to have a very shady background that suddenly has light on it. Even in the most Republican of districts, you never know how many of them are PO'd at the guy (safe to say about R's).

If you enjoy being busy all day. If you enjoy fresh air. If you like the challenge of pointing out what a maroon your opponent is. Run for office. Any office, all offices. No matter what you do, it will be fun.

There are many progressive organizations ready to take and train you - if you are going to fight for the seat.

I live in Maryland and have the pleasure of paying a bit of Virginia property taxes. I beg you to run. And, I will never rule out myself in Maryland.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
Edmund Burke

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